Discussing the disgraced cyclist, Skinnersaid: "I've done panel shows where there have been other [comics] on as guests, and I've found out after that they've had four or five writers. That's not a level playing field, is it? They're using performance-enhancing writers. At home, people are thinking they're funnier than that Frank Skinner. In fact, it's five or six to one. I wonder if Oprah knows about this."

Skinner's comments – made, of course, in jest – add to mounting discontent within comedy at the glibness and hyper-competitiveness of TV panel shows. "Effectively, these comics are miming to someone else's jokes," Skinner concluded. "Comedians should start returning their awards if they've been on shows that use writers."

There is one panel show, however, that is above most criticism – and it's in the news this week, as Tim Brooke-Taylor tells a Bristol audience why I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue never transferred to TV. As Chortle reports, the Radio 4 show's regular panellist told a Q&A session at the city's Slapstick festival: "We did a pilot for ITV, and they said: 'Yes, we'd like to go along with it. But can we have some younger people doing it?' I think they missed the point somewhat." The show this year celebrates its 40th birthday on radio.

From one well-loved comedy veteran to another – but this week, Billy Connolly is the target of fury, as animal rights activists attack the Big Yin for accepting a gift of, er, stingray-skin shoes from a film crew while he was working on The Hobbit. A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said: "Stingrays are fascinating, gentle sea animals, and they don't deserve to be slaughtered for a pair of joke shoes that will likely never even be worn."

Rolling Stone magazine has named "the 50 funniest people now", and neither Brooke-Taylor nor Connolly make the cut. Brits are few and far between, in fact, and seemingly selected on the basis of US profile alone: Daniel Kitson at 46, John Oliver at 26 and Ricky Gervais at 16 are among the lucky few. Tina Fey, satirist Stephen Colbert and, at the top, the much-hyped Louis CK occupy the medal positions. Back in Blighty, the funniest people of tomorrow were assessed at last weekend's prestigious New Act of the Year award. The winner was Paul F Taylor, sidekick to Edinburgh Comedy award nominee Nick Helm in the double-act Helm and Taylor, and purveyor of "a mix of offbeat banter, studentish charm and tinges of Harry Hill," according to critic Bruce Dessau, reporting on Sunday evening's event.

Controversy of the week

Regular Guardian readers will be up to speed with this one already: the BBC's decision to censor Fawlty Towers has been the talking point of the week. The episode in question, predictably enough, was The Germans – but it wasn't Basil's goosestepping that was deemed likely to cause offence. For the episode's broadcast on Sunday 20 January, the Beeb edited out a speech by Fawlty's regular guest the Major, which referred to "niggers" and "wogs". The cut was made, said a BBC spokesperson, to reflect changing public attitudes, and "to allow the episode to transmit to a family audience at 7.30pm on BBC2".

Never shy when a chance arises to bash the Beeb, the Daily Mail went big on the story, quoting correspondents to the BBC's Points of View messageboard who criticised the move. "I doubt if anyone but the terminally thin-skinned could be offended by the Major," wrote one. Another complained: "How sad BBC [that] you have finally succumbed and lost the guts to transmit the episode … It's about time you grew up BBC and trusted your audience." The Guardian's Mark Lawson joined the debate, while our readers offered their opinions – mostly against the cuts – below the line.

If Mrs Brown's Boys was a Swedish import called Mrs Larsson's Boys and was shown on BBC4 with subtitles on a Saturday evening at 8.30 before The Killing or Borgen etc, then I am fairly confident most of the 'anti' people on here would all be falling over themselves saying how wonderful it was.

Sorry my British cousins, but you owe us for 1,000 years of oppression and a famine. I feel that dumping this horrible little man on you has gone some way towards evening the score. Take Enda Kenny off our hands and we'll call it quits.

Alexei Sayle's article in advance of his long-awaited return to standup was followed by a gleeful wallow in his finest jokes from yesteryear. Treat yourself to a nostalgic chuckle, thirtysomethings, by reading the whole thread, which includes this corker, contributed by DmIsTheSaddestKey:

I got me girlfriend into a bit trouble recently. Yeah. I got her involved in the civil war in Angola.

Another comment, from Scriberpunk, inspires amusement and philosophical reflection in equal measure:

I always wanted more money than sense. I've got a fiver. I'm half way there.